Date: 2009-12-23 10:33 Subject: Internet filter approved : Security: Public

The internet filter is approved and the bill will be presented to
parliament next year. :(

But here
is a good article on the real reasons for the filter and why the
anti-filter campaign is failing.

Essentially it's because Conroy isn't pushing the filter because he
thinks its a good idea, it's because they've cut a deal with the
Australian Christian Lobby.

Double :(

Date: 2009-11-26 12:18 Subject: Left 4 Dead 2 censored by lack of R18+ rating for games Security: Public

Another game is censored by the lack of
an R 18+ rating.

But the good news is that Atkinson is up for election in March 2010 and
Gamers4Croyden are setting up to contest his seat.

Date: 2009-11-19 12:47 Subject: Defying Gravity Canceled Security: Public

Dammit. Why are all the shows I like canceled just as they're getting
good? Defying Gravity was canceled right on episode 8, the very episode
where it finally started to get good and actually reveal things instead
of just angst about abortions. I didn't even realise because I'd been
downloading my episodes from Canada, which is the only country to
actually air the rest of the season. And the rest of the season is good.
>:(

*sigh*

I suppose this is what happens when shows take too long to get to the
point.

For those who are interested, you can read the creator's summary of
how the show would have progressed.

It also has confirmation of what I've thought all along about Lost. Told
you so.

Date: 2009-11-17 15:08 Subject: Live Pandas! Security: Public

I honestly don't understand why the orginators of Thailand's Panda
Channel are surprised at it's success. Come on people, it's live
pandas!

Date: 2009-11-13 16:03 Subject: creepy groundwater critters Security: Public

I'm doing a bit in groundwater at the moment for work and I came accross
this nifty article about
some of the creepy new groundwater critters that have been discovered in
various aquifers and such in Australia. Check it out.

N.B. The blind eel looks like a penis.

Also, tiny blind scorpions. How cool is that?

Date: 2009-11-13 12:06 Subject: Crikey Steveirwini Security: Public

Somehow I always thought Steve Irwin would have something more
impressive (or at least dangerous) named after him than a
stripey snail.

Date: 2009-11-12 17:56 Subject: Maternity rights for women making women less employable Security: Public

Alexandra Shulman, Vogue editor, has a lot of relevance to say about the
implications of the UK's maternity rights. She's written an interesting
article at the Daily Mail: Year-long maternity leave,
flexi hours, four day weeks... why would ANY boss hire a woman?

Essentially the point is, are all the maternity requirements making
employers shy of hiring women of child bearing age?

Date: 2009-11-12 17:52 Subject: Ranty McRantalot thinks you should just be a God Damned capitalist already; or, Why books in Austral Security: Public

I'm going to have a little rant about this one. This week, the
Federal Government decided not to lift restrictions on book imports.

Aside from it being rampant protectionism, which I very rarely think is
a good thing, it's also being done for some pretty stupid reasons.

Essentially they want to protect that Australian literary industry. The
proponents of the restrictions are worried that without protections
small Australian publishers will not be economical and will go bust. So
we'll be getting the vast majority of our books from international
publishers and distributors. This is a problem because if books by
Australian authors have to compete for attention at international
publishing houses (rather than just smaller Australian only ones), they
might not get published.

The thing I hate about this is that it's essentially a form of cultural
elitism. There is an underlying assumption here that it is good for us
to read books by Australian authors, simply because they are Australian,
not because they're actually any good. As part of the school curriculum
we have to read a certain number of "Australian books". These are often
books that are essentially about little more than celebrating their own
Australian-ness. Yes, we all live in Australia. We get it already. Could
we please talk about something interesting now?

Surely Australian authors have more to say than just "Hi, I'm from
Australia. I like the small Australian town I grew up in. It's neat."
Surely we can think of something to say that has relevance to a wider
audience? Or even just relevance?

I understand the argument that it's about protecting our culture and not
having a sort of culture marketplace where different cultural norms (and
spelling) has to compete for dominance or relevancy. But I actually
don't have a huge problem with that idea. Technology has already given
the developed world an environment where there is such a bleed of memes,
ideas and norms, that I think we already have that market place. And the
number and variety of weird subcultures that not only survive, but
thrive in that environment, gives me enormous hope that there is a place
for niche market culture.

I think that if people really want to read books by Australian authors,
set in Australian towns, about Australian life, published by boutique
Australian publishers, they should be the ones paying significantly more
to keep those boutique publishers afloat. Why do the rest of us have to
subsidise their tastes? Because it's good for us? I get that stories are
a significant part of telling us who we are and keeping our cultural
identity. But that's the problem. I am not simply "Australian." I am a
woman. I am a geek. I am an environmentalist. I am a larper, a worker, a
sister, a gamer, a daughter, a writer, an explorer of the world I live
in. We are all such a myriad of other things that we deserve equal
access to all those other stories that also have relevance for us. And
this protectionism is essentially only in place because some toff
somewhere thinks I'm not "Australian" enough.

Date: 2009-11-12 17:31 Subject: ISP filtering trials Security: Public

It seems we still have no news of how those "clean feed" trials went.
Which I call suspicious. As does Simon Birmingham of the The Punch.

Mind you his points about why the Rudd government can't back down are
also pretty poignant.

Date: 2009-11-12 10:10 Subject: Scanning electron micrographs FTW Security: Public

The ASPEX Corporation is
offering to do free scanning
electron micrographs of just about anything.

Just fill out the
form and send them whatever bit of cruft you want scanned, and
they'll put the image up on their website.

They've got some up there now that look pretty cool. I rather like the
blue cheese.

Date: 2009-11-03 10:13 Subject: Movember Team Security: Public

Chaedy suggested setting up and supporting a Camarilla team for Movember. Brody Guest has gone
and created one and I think it's a great plan.

I can't see an easy way to find a link to the team page, but if you
search the Mos for "Cam-Mo-rilla" you should find all the team members.

As always this is a great way to support men's health issues like
prostate cancer and depression, which otherwise don't get much
attention.

Date: 2009-10-29 12:02 Subject: Awesome second hand designer frocks! Security: Public

This is a quick plug for Miss Money Penny.
It's a website for buying and selling quality and designer second hand
clothes.

She's pretty scrupulous about vetting all the items up for sale, so
there are some very nice designer label pieces available for a tiny
fraction of the retail price. Like, actually within my budget.

I have now officially wasted too much time browsing for pretty things I
don't need. Back to work for me. :(

Date: 2009-09-21 11:14 Subject: nifty news Security: Public

Won
't Somebody Think of the Adults? - This is a pretty good article (if
a little old now) on some of the issues with the "clean feed" that still
haven't been addressed yet.

I think he might be wrong about his VPN predictions. It's technology
that is relatively easily available now, and there are existing benefits
(mostly to criminals and copyright violators) at present, but it's still
not as widely used as crime and copyright violation. I suspect it's more
likely that most people will just accept the filter and continue using
the internet as normal only much more slowly. Which is sad.

I do wonder if RuddNet is meant to be some sort of compensation for the
slower download speeds once we have the ISP filter.

Vicious
Attack Bears!. Because urban bear attacks brighten my day for some
reason. Like cannibalism, it always makes me smile.

Speaking of cannibalism, Van Diemen's Land
opens this week. It's a film about that Tasmanian canibal convict
escapee I keep ranting excitedly about. Apparently it's so gory people in the test audience threw up. Anyone want to come see
it with me?

I'm sure you all know, but I thought I might as well link to the fact
that Left 4
Dead 2 has been refused classifaction. This is just getting stupid.
Honestly, how hard would it be to just suck it up and make an R18+
classification for games, the same as for films? Stupid Attorney-General of South Australia. And weren't we meant to
be getting a submissions process on this? Like, last year?

Date: 2009-09-15 12:52 Subject: nifty news Security: Public

Finally, the Rudd government has decided to effectively force Telstra to separate its infrastructure and retail
arms. Well that's sensible.

Sadly, there
are no real plans to provide Bob Dylan voiced GPS systems. But there
should be. I would totally buy a Bob Dylan GPS. Especially if he said
things like "Turn right onto highway 61," "you have arrived at
desolation row" and "there must be some way out of here" whenever it is
recalculating.

Casting is complete for all the major major roles in HBO's pilot of A Game of Thrones. Some
of the choices sound promising, especially Sean Bean as Ned Stark 9aka
Boromir) and Lena Headly as Cersei Lanister. I'm sure
she'll rock, but it's another nail in the coffin for my hopes of a
network picking up Sarah Connor Chronicles.

While we're talking about movies, I'm sure you all know about it, but
pictures and trailers for Where the Wild
Things Are are always nifty.

Date: 2009-09-03 16:46 Subject: Niftiness and news, not necessarily in equal proportion. Security: Public

Patrick Leahy is
the most awesome US senator. Aside from generally sounding like a
fairly sensible politician, he is also a comics fan. The last paragraph
on the wiki page at the moment is:

"A big fan of Batman comics, Leahy lent his voice in the Batman: The
Animated Series episode "Showdown". He also appeared in a cameo role in
the 1997 film Batman and Robin, and has another cameo in the 2008 film
The Dark Knight.

Leahy wrote the introduction to the collected edition of Green Arrow:
the Archer's Quest and the foreword to the first volume of The Dark
Knight Archives, a hardcover reprinting of the first four issues of the
Batman comic book."

That's just awesome. Australian politicians just seem a bit dull by
comparison.


This opinion piece from ABC news is a fairly
good summary of my experience in India. Poverty, violence and natural
disasters are so commonplace that they are barely newsworthy. The
comment towards the end of the article, "For most Indians life is cruel,
relentless and short" echoes my own feelings about the small value most
Indians seemed to place on human life. It gave me a lot to think about
and certainly does put the attacks on Indian students in a different
perspective.

Here are some photos of beautiful libraries. Please ignore the
awful text accompanying them.

Date: 2009-09-02 22:57 Subject: Ayn Rand dating. Security: Public

This is an hilarious list of Top 10 most obscure dating sites.

I rather like the Ayn Rand dating site description...

You can just imagine the girl telling her friends about her Ayn Rand date the night before. "So things were going well, we ate some appetizers, talked about personal rights, had some wine, used the word 'dystopia' 47 times and didn't give homeless people any change. Then we got back to his place and it turned out his fountainhead was as thick as 'Atlas Shrugged'.

But maybe I'm just a bad person.

Date: 2009-08-20 16:13 Subject: Nifty News Security: Public

Damn those chocolate theiving seals. Don't let them bully innocent Cadbury workers I say.

This is just bizarre in a Series-7 sort of way.

And lastly... take that railroading DM.

Date: 2009-08-09 14:07 Subject: Nifty News Security: Public

Frakkin Toaster t-shirts at Glarkware!

The description text is gold:
"A toaster is capable of a lot more than you might think at first glance. Even more than toasting your bread, actually. Treat it poorly, and it will find a way to collude with other toasters to overthrow humanity. But treat it well, and…well, you and that little old toaster might actually find love. It’s not a love that either of your communities will sanction or even understand, but you know best: that seemingly simple appliance loves you from the coils of its heart."

Date: 2009-08-06 09:52 Subject: crazy cat stories Security: Public

I know I joke about becoming a crazy cat lady. But this is a rather disturbing comic
about a cat.

Date: 2009-07-27 11:46 Subject: Additionally nifty Security: Public

I met an actual moon landing denier on the weekend. That was weird.

On the plus side, it prompted me to find this awesome fake moon landing conspiracy theory website.

Also, I want a cuddly knitted moon alien.